HIV/AIDS and sustainable development

Meaningful and sustainable development cannot occur if the HIV/AIDS epidemic continues to drain human resources, UNAIDS said in a new report released for the Earth Summit in Johannesburg.

"By robbing communities and nations of their greatest wealth - their people - AIDS drains the human and institutional capacities that fuel sustainable development," the report said.

Speaking at a media briefing on Thursday, UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot said HIV/AIDS had to be adequately reflected in declarations emerging from the World Summit on Sustainable Development.

The objectives of UNAIDS during the summit would be to ensure that HIV/AIDS was recognised as a cross-cutting and critical issue of sustainable development. There had been "a lot of talk" about the pandemic, but not enough written on it in the Johannesburg plan of implementation, he added.

"HIV/AIDS, Human Resources and Sustainable Development," details how the epidemic is affecting global human capital and suggests strategies to mitigate its impact.

In countries hard hit by the disease, the need for health care is expanding massively at a time when the epidemic is claiming its heaviest toll among health workers. Consequently, the capacity of health systems to provide care is being eroded.

But according to the report, targets such as the one set by African leaders at the 2001 Abuja Summit to increase health spending by 15 percent would not match the needs generated by the epidemic. "Especially if treatment access is to expand beyond the mere 30,000 Africans who were receiving antiretroviral therapy in early 2002," it added.

While acknowledging that universal access would not happen immediately, Piot urged governments not to wait in rolling out drugs. "The need for treatment is today," he said.

The epidemic has created a "double-jeopardy situation" in education systems. It reduced the quality of training and education and left fewer people to receive the benefits of learning, the report noted.

Expecting households to cope with the disease without support from the broader society was "unrealistic". Studies in AIDS-affected countries in Africa and Asia indicated that income in AIDS-affected households could be less than half that of average households.

An increasing demand for the income-earning labour, household maintenance, child care and nursing work of women, made them particularly vulnerable. A survey in Zambia in 2000 revealed that 65 percent of households disintegrated after losing a key adult female family member.

"The food emergencies sweeping through Southern Africa highlight how vulnerable many countries are to shocks that disrupt food production and consumption. In each of the affected countries, HIV/AIDS constitutes a shock of considerable proportion," the report said.

This underlined the need to tackle rural development, food security and agricultural policies together with the epidemic, it added.

While there was a lot of "doom and gloom" surrounding the epidemic, results were possible, Piot said at the briefing. "The key is to implement AIDS in wider development strategies," he added.

"A step forward occurs when the HIV/AIDS response is made everybody's business...Just as mobilisation around environmental concerns has made environmental impact assessments a key part of policy-making, AIDS impact assessments need to become commonplace," the report said.

To access the report: http://www.unaids.org